Learning Technologiesat College of DuPage

Our Focus

Learning Technologies is dedicated to researching, implementing, and supporting learning technologies in order to create the student-centered learning environment necessary to deliver high-quality education.

Online & Hybrid Design

Learning Technologies will work closely with you to develop or adapt courses for online and hybrid delivery. You can find assistance with every step of the process, including instructional design, media production, and technical help.

Workshops & Events

Throughout the year Learning Technologies facilitates workshops, courses, and one-on-one or group consultations designed to help you advance your knowledge and mastery of educational technologies

Blackboard Support

We offer one-on-one support for Blackboard on a walk-in and appointment basis and regular workshops throughout the year on Blackboard features. Watch for the launch of our updated Knowledge Base, the one-stop-shop for Blackboard online support at COD.

Faculty Lab

Our computer lab is equipped with both Macs and PCs, webcams, headsets, and a WACOM tablet. All computers have Camtasia and Adobe Creative Suite installed.

New Technologies

Learning Technologies investigates and evaluates new technologies for online and classroom use. We help to make sure these technologies are available to you as a faculty member, through our labs and equipment checkout, and provide support and training.

Sound Booth & Green Screen

The sound booth can be used for creating podcasts and adding voice-overs to screencasts or presentations. Using our green screen and HD camera, we can help you script, shoot, and edit brief videos for your courses.

Web Content Management

Whether you need to make simple updates or overhaul your department’s homepage, we can help you make sure your program is well-represented on the web.

Digital Resource Management

Working closely with the Library, Learning Technologies can help you obtain and use copyrighted digital material for your online, hybrid, or web-enhanced course. We also offer assistance with organizing and uploading publisher content, such as course material and testbanks.

Faculty Lab

Meet Our Team

Susan Landers

Becky Benkert

Instructional Designer

Min Pan

Instructional Designer

Christina Sabo

Web Content Editor

Tim Sweeney

Instructional Technologist

Lara Tompkins

Instructional Technologist

Testimonials

“Learning Technologies has been very instrumental in assisting me in the development of online course materials for two new programs. The entire department is knowledgeable, creative, efficient, and very responsive. I would like to thank them for all they have done in assisting me over the last year in online course development.”

“The Learning Technologies team is an exceptional group who are always ready to support faculty. I have attended their workshops and learned how to better utilize Blackboard to enhance the design and delivery of the courses I teach. I am so grateful to them for their willingness to solve problems I encounter and for their help when I was developing a new online course.”

“One of my biggest frustrations with Bb was my lack of comprehension of the mysteries of the gradebook and weighted averages. With the help of Lara and several of her colleagues, I was finally able to make Blackboard agree with my Excel logic – no small feat! Thanks, Learning Technologies, for being willing and able, even eager, to help me with the tech tools.”

KNOWLEDGE BASE

Latest News

Looking to move your in person course online? Hoping to build out some more content for your online or hybrid courses? There are lots of helpful resources out there that can help make the process a little easier. One of these resources is MERLOT. We’ll explain what MERLOT is, how to use it, and why[…]

Well, folks, this is it: my last post of the term (because next week is finals and I’m going to be swamped). I want to thank everyone who did the clicky thing 28 times… that’s right, I wrote 28 posts (including this one) for this blog over the course of what will be arguably remembered[…]

So far, in these posts, I have mostly discussed tech tools or Blackboard features that I like, think are useful, and use with various frequency. In this post, I want to turn the tables and talk about the tools and features I don’t like, the tools I don’t use, either because I think they impede[…]

Remember when metacognition was going to be the theme for the semester (year?) and we all got a free book (raise your hands, how many of you read it??)? And then the world pandemic hit and our priorities shifted to making to the end of the term on remote instruction. And now, after pushing Summer[…]

It’s that time of year again, the weather is getting warmer, the flowers and blooming and… you’re inside grading. Ah, yes, the end of the semester, a time of great excitement but also of great stress because there’s just SO MUCH GRADING. (You can do it, just hang in there!) While this term is ending[…]

I have mentioned in previous posts the need to get creative with content, assignments, and feedback, especially with everything online in our near future. In this post, I’d like to suggest a tool that I know faculty already use: VoiceThread. It’s been around a while but I do like it for specific purposes. I have[…]

If you are teaching an online course at College of DuPage this summer, you will need to ensure that you’re ready for the challenges of online instruction– there are some key differences from in-person instruction. We’ve got instructions on our preparation process below. We’re also asking that instructors prepare for potential disruptions in our usual[…]

Shannon and I, that is. We decided to send out a few quick tips regarding moving from remote instruction to online teaching. Here goes: I would also like to provide a couple of resources for those of us looking for ideas and inspiration. The first one is The K. Patricia Cross Academy. They have a[…]

Many faculty have been asking about different ways to assess student learning as we approach the end of the academic year. You might want some new, fresh ideas because your traditional final won’t work well in Blackboard, or because the term paper you originally assigned seems like a heavy lift for students this semester, or[…]

I read somewhere (and for the life of me I can’t remember where and I have too much to grade this week to look it up) that a good idea to help students learn is to generate a unifying theme for your students, a grand narrative of the course, so they can see that there[…]